


Once Upon a Time, in the Reality Next Door

by Noxnoctisanima



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 12:40:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5456822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noxnoctisanima/pseuds/Noxnoctisanima
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a world where Eve was not Flynn's Guardian, she was Cassandra's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Upon a Time, in the Reality Next Door

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cedara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cedara/gifts).



“This is your Librarian.” 

Eve was two days down a rabbit hole and seriously considering the concept of hallucinogens. She had not expected the endless space below the Metropolitan Public Library, nor the tiny red headed girl who was now being introduced to her.

Her name was Cassandra and she blinked at Eve in such a way as to suggest she was not so much meeting her eyes as her eyebrows. She wore a high collar and an embroidered cardigan and if she was more than eighteen Eve would eat her favourite boots. 

“Hi.” She said quietly with a half raised wave. “You’re my guardian. Not my actual guardian, I’m eighteen now, which I suppose is why I have a Guardian.” She blinked owlishly and sniffed. “Huh, chocolate cake.” 

Eve must have looked confused because Charlene broke in. 

“Cassandra is a synesthete. Her sensory input is confused and also integrated with her memory recall.” Eve’s continued confusion prompted her to elaborate. “Things she remembers, hears or sees can trigger different sensory memories.” 

“Guardian smells like chocolate cake.” Cassandra added helpfully. “And math tastes like breakfast food.” 

“Have you been the Librarian long?” Eve has to ask because at least one of them should know what they’re doing. 

“Two years, but Charlene wouldn’t let me go out until the Library thought I was ready.” She broke into a wide grin. “But now you’re here, so I can go out in the field! We’ve already got our first case, I’ll get the clippings book!” The words flowed out in an uncontrollable stream before Cassandra darted off between the shelves. 

Eve blinked. 

“Energetic isn’t she?” Charlene drew Eve’s attention back to her. “You’d never know she has a terminal brain tumour.” 

Eve’s hackles instantly rose. “She’s dying and you’re going to let her go out there and put herself at even more risk?”

“The tumour is growing slowly Colonel Baird. When the invitation to apply for the Library reached her Cassandra was in a hospital, having just been told there was no cure for her. She chose to spend the days she had left doing this rather than sitting in a hospital waiting to die. Can you say you would do any differently?” 

 

“I think if I press this symbol, the door should unlock.” 

“Your use of the words ‘think’ and ‘should’ does not fill me with confidence.” Eve arched an eyebrow. “And what will happen if it doesn't.”

“It’s a trap. Rocks fall, everybody dies.” Cassandra flapped her hands dismissively. “But I’m right.” She reached towards the symbol but Eve grabbed her hand.

“I’ll push it. You stand back.” Cassandra opened her mouth to argue but Eve held up a hand. “No, I am the Guardian, I guard. You are the Librarian you….”

“Libe?” Cassandra broke in with a grin. Eve frowned at her.

“Stand back Librarian.” 

Cassandra crossed her arms and took a deliberately large step back.

“Standing back.”

Eve pressed the symbol and the door opened. Cassandra rushed forward with a squeal. Eve grabbed her by the shirt just before she barrelled through the door. Cassandra squeaked but Eve just pointed down to where a trip wire stretched through the doorway. 

“And this is why I open the doors Librarian.”

 

Cassandra was collapsed across a reading desk, murmuring sleepily to herself, an old tome in the curl of her arms. Eve moved closer until the murmuring coalesced into words. 

“If I try it in Akkadian maybe the healing aspects would be increased. Or maybe if I combine it with the removal spell I found last week.”

“Cassandra.” 

Cassandra shot up with a jolt. 

“Are you trying to use magic?” Eve couldn’t quite keep the judgement out of her voice and Cassandra’s expression turned mulish and she frowned.

“It’s so powerful. We’ve seen all the things it can do! Healing and hiding and opening portals! It can fix me, I know it! Why shouldn’t I try?”

“Power is not always a good thing Cassandra. We’ve seen what it can do but you’re forgetting the side effects. Every use of magic we’ve seen, something has gone wrong. Don’t pretend you don’t remember that.” Eve rested her hand on Cassandra’s shoulder.

“But I can feel it growing. I can feel it in my head, my nose bleeds when I do math now.” She touched one finger under her nose instinctively and paused for a long moment. “I don’t want to die.” She turned further and pressed her face into Eve’s shoulder. Eve wrapped her arms around her. Being a Guardian meant protecting your Librarian, and she could do nothing in the face of this. 

 

“I can’t believe you got to be Prince Charming and I had to be the helpless princess.” Eve grumbled as she wrestled off her corset. 

“You made a very lovely princess Colonel.” Cassandra smiled at her, she had picked up a little swagger in her step, all Eve had got was a firm grip of the correct courtesies owed the nobility. 

“Thank you Cassandra but I’m glad it’s over.” She had hated being vulnerable like that, though the attention Cassandra had paid her was somewhat nice, men didn’t treat her as precious, not once they learned what she did and women always expected her to be the pursuer. 

“Me too. But it was a nice idea.” She waited until Eve met her eyes. “The Prince and the Princess always live happily ever after.” 

Eve blinked. “Cassandra…” 

Cassandra smiled at her. 

“It’s okay Colonel Baird, it’s just something I like to think about, I don’t expect anything from you.” She shrugged a little. 

Eve’s thoughts moved very quickly in the silence; protector, duty, friend, warmth, beautiful; and she took a step towards Cassandra. 

She put a hand on Cassandra’s face and Cassandra looked up at her with wide eyes. 

“I think if I’m going to do this you should call me Eve.” She bent her head and kissed Cassandra, who let out a little squeak and sunk against her. 

“It’s like a fairytale.” Cassandra breathed out as they pulled back. 

“No, it’s better.” Eve smiled predatorily. “No one has sex in a fairy tale.” 

 

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The scream was piercing and it echoed through the long aisles of the library. Eve shot up from her chair and took off sprinting towards the sound which was only now beginning to fade into silence. 

She rounded the corner of the magic section and had an awful premonition of what she would find. Cassandra was curled into a ball, clutching her head. She was surrounded by piles of arcane objects and ingredients. However, even as Eve watched she began to stir. She pushed herself back into a seated position and rubbed her head. As she caught sight of Eve she broke into a brilliant grin. 

“It worked!” 

Eve blinked at her, still hearing the scream. “What?”

“The brain grape is gone! My spell worked!” She looked so radiantly happy and leant forward to kiss Eve. 

Eve pulled back, frowning. 

“Why didn’t you tell me you were planning this?” 

“I didn’t want to worry you.” Cassandra smiled nervously, her elation fading. 

Eve shook her head. “No. You didn’t want me to stop you.” Cassandra looked guilty and Eve knew she had hit the mark. “You know magic isn’t safe Cassandra, it always has a cost. Do you even know what the cost of this will be?” 

“Pain.” Cassandra said, jaw stubborn. “That’s why I chose this one. That’s the price. I feel every moment of what it took to remove it but pain is better than dead.”

Eve flinched. 

“I’m sorry. I know you’re upset. I knew you would be, but I couldn’t give up this chance. I’m going to live now Eve, as long as a Librarian ever can. I will understand if this is something you can’t forgive but I had to do it.” She was apologetic but her eyes were still defiant. 

Eve stepped back unconsciously. 

“I don’t know. I’ll need some time.” 

Cassandra smiled at her, in the sad, knowing way she had begun to have and nodded.

“Of course Guardian.” 

 

“Dragons are real?!” Eve seemed to be angry at the whole idea as much at the large fire breathing lizard which had them trapped in a warehouse.

“Yes, but they’ve been asleep for millennia. Someone stole from them so they’re awake now.” Cassandra replied as she huddled behind a container on the other side of the cavernous room. She coughed as the growing smoke curled around her. 

“Well, how do we put them back to sleep? Is there some kind of lullaby spell or can we, I don’t know, summon Saint George?” Eve was desperately wishing for a gun though she knew it would have less than no effect on a dragon.

“No.” Cassandra said quietly.

“What?” 

“Once the dragons are awake there’s nothing we can do.” Cassandra’s voice was sad. “We lost this one.” 

“Are you telling me that there’s nothing, not even magic, that can do something?” Eve asked, incredulous. 

“Dragons are far more powerful than I will ever be. I can’t put them back to sleep. The best I could do is protect people from them. Hide them.”

Dragon flame splattered the wall of the warehouse again and the smell of sulfur joined the smoke in the air. 

“Can you hide us now?” Because if she couldn’t Eve didn’t see a lot of other ways out. Cassandra shook her head. 

“It wouldn’t help us. It’s a spell to hide a place and ours is already on fire.” 

Eve had a blinding moment of clarity. There was only one way out. 

“Cassandra. I need you to run.” 

“But I just said I can’t hide us from the dragon. It would see me.”

“Not if it’s looking at me instead.” Eve said resolutely.

The Cassandra Eve had first met would not have understood what that meant, but this Cassandra understood sacrifice. 

“No.” Cassandra shook her head violently.

“Only one of us gets out of here Cassandra. And I’m your Guardian.” 

“No. No, no, no, no. That’s not what that means, you guard me, you don’t die for me.” Cassandra was shaking her head violently but Eve just smiled sadly at her. 

“You’ve read the histories of the Librarians just like I have Cassandra, you know that’s what all Guardians do eventually.” 

“No, you can’t I’ll…” Eve interrupted her gently. The smoke was growing thicker and Eve could feel her mind begin to fuzz with lack of oxygen. There wasn’t time for this.

“In a moment I’m going to walk out there and draw the attention of the dragon. I need you to run the other way. I need you to be safe Librarian. I need you to save other people.” Eve stood up. 

“No. Eve!” 

Eve looked back at her for just a moment before reaching for the door.

“Run Cassandra.”


End file.
